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July 1, 2010

Is It August 2006 Again?

With Kevin Cash as our starting catcher, I propose letting the pitchers bat and having David Ortiz DH for Cash.

In the last week:

June 24 - Mike Lowell on DL with strained right hip

June 25 - Dustin Pedroia on DL with fracture in left foot

June 26 - Clay Buchholz pulled after one inning with hyper-extended left knee left hamstring strain

June 28 - Victor Martinez on DL with fractured bone in left thumb

July 1 - Manny Delcarmen on DL with right forearm strain

July 1 - Jason Varitek on DL with broken bone in foot

And earlier this year:

April 4: Daisuke Matsuzaka on DL with neck strain

April 19: Mike Cameron on DL with hernia

April 20: Jacoby Ellsbury on DL with left chest contusion

May 19: Josh Beckett on DL with lower back strain

May 28: Jacoby Ellsbury on DL with fractured ribs

June 11: Jeremy Hermida on DL with fractured ribs

June 12: Daisuke Matsuzaka on DL with right forearm strain

Those are the main ones; I have probably forgot one or two. And that does not include on-going issues with J.D. Drew (neck), Kevin Youkilis (back), and Marco Scutaro (neck).

While I am considering rethinking my outright dismissal of curses, I also know that only one team in MLB has more wins than the Red Sox (New York won its 48th game tonight; Boston has 47). The Sox lead all of MLB in runs scored and and slugging percentage, and are second in on-base percentage (.002 behind the Yankees).

Well, in August 2006, the trading deadline had just passed when the wave of injuries happened. At least the Sox have more time now and can make some moves should any of the injuries prove more serious.

Un-fucking-believable. I don't think I've ever witnessed a wave of so many injuries to key players in such a short time. Wait, I feel an inspirational quote coming on.Never have so many hurt so much in so few days.......sorry

Bob Ryan was just on WEEI's Dale and Holley Show and made a great point.

If Alex Rodriguez broke his foot, cast aside his crutches and took grounders from his knees in the infield a few days later, he would be universally ripped as being a glory-seeking fraud.

But when Dustin Pedroia did it yesterday, he was hailed as the personification of guts and dedication.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

A few weeks ago, Pedroia said he would be snap out of his slump because he was the hardest working player in baseball. Nobody batted an eye. When A-Rod made that claim a few years ago, Trot Nixon called him "a clown" and even assorted Yankees rolled their eyes. ...

redsock said...I hope either the Red Sox okayed FY doing that or they in no uncertain terms told him to cut that shit out. It seems like a very bad idea.

From what I heard , that is a regualr drill they do in spring training....was blown up a bit...

and why the A-rod - Pedey comparisons....A-rod was the can't miss kid , with 2 very lucrative contracts. Pedey is a 5'6 phenom, who spent most of his baseball life with people telling him he was too small and too slow.

I beleive Pedeys comments about himself are self motivating he doesn't do it for press or headlines, he says them because that is what he has to believe...

redsock said...

Bob Ryan was just on WEEI's Dale and Holley Show and made a great point.

If Alex Rodriguez broke his foot, cast aside his crutches and took grounders from his knees in the infield a few days later, he would be universally ripped as being a glory-seeking fraud.

But when Dustin Pedroia did it yesterday, he was hailed as the personification of guts and dedication.

Funny how that works, isn't it?

Why does it bother you so much when players are hailed as gutsy or dirtbags, or gamers?

I think it is true they do exsist, as do glory hound blowhards, like A-rod, and to compare the two is comical....

Why does it bother you so much when players are hailed as gutsy or dirtbags, or gamers?

I think it is true they do exsist, as do glory hound blowhards, like A-rod, and to compare the two is comical....

I won't speak for Allan, but I can tell you why it bothers me.

It's just another media label and stereotype used to create images of players. The ones labelled gritty gamers (who are almost always white guys) can do no wrong. The ones labelled lazy or spacey can do no right.

Once a player is labelled lazy, it doesn't matter how hard he works and that he's the first one to the ballpark every day, we'll still hear about the gound ball he didn't run out 5 years ago.

(I'm just using that as an example.)

Once a player is labelled a gritty gamer, whatever he does is great, even if it's stupid.

One player is labelled "soft" - as far as I can tell, only because he's good-looking! - so his injuries are said to be exaggerated or fake. Another player is labelled "tough" so when he plays through injuries and hurts his team, he's gritty, not stupid.

We all know how the media shapes (or tries to) our images of players based on some perceived or imagined personality trait - or worse, traits given to most players who look like this guy.

So if we reject the negative stereotypes, we can reject the supposedly positive ones, too. We can recognize that it's all bullshit.

Back when I read Baseball Weekly, Bob Nightengale had a great column (maybe 10 years ago) about how players are fitted for "straightjackets" by the media when they arrive in the bigs. And though years and years pass, it is next to impossible for the player to escape.

Someone like Manny has worked his ass off playing baseball since he was in high school -- the evidence is as obvious as the big green wall at Fenway -- and yet, 20 years into his Hall of Fame career, only a handful of media members cite his extraordinary work ethic (and most of the time it is done to offer some professional "balance" and to off-set the jokes that fill up the rest of the piece).

***

Does anyone doubt that Slappy would be ripped if he was doing this in the infield?

Come on, casey, you know Pedro was called a prima donna and a diva for almost all of his time in Boston.

But the thing is the straightjacklet. And Drew wears one, too. Fragile, goes on the DL for a papercut, Nancy, doesn't care about the game ...

Nixon had one that helped him totally deflect any and all notice of his bone-headed plays - dozing on the bases, shitty routes to fly balls, hurting himself while driving his car, tossing the ball into the stands with 1 or 2 outs.

***

Jeter would get the Pedroia treatment, for sure. Look how much he cares about the team, doing all he can to stay in shape...

The media does sometimes rip Jeter -- his lack of captainesque qualities in dealing with A-Rod, etc. -- though that is rare and only in the last few years.

Back when I read Baseball Weekly, Bob Nightengale had a great column (maybe 10 years ago) about how players are fitted for "straightjackets" by the media when they arrive in the bigs. And though years and years pass, it is next to impossible for the player to escape.

That's what the movie 61* was about. I spoke to NYY fans who totally understood that it happened in then... but were completely blind to the fact that it has never stopped.

And to even give Bob Ryan the time of day on this issue is crazy....

A big part of this blog is media critique - calling bullshit on mainstream media. You might not like it, but it's not crazy.

Ya have to believe that there are lazy ballplayers, ones who take days off, ones who loaf after balls, ones who don't always try their hardest....They exist in every profession.

I'm not going to say there are none. But "every profession" is not professional sports. A very tiny percentage of athletes ever make it to the major league level of any sport, and it cannot be done on talent alone. No one gets there without hard work and commitment.

Also, I don't know how we would ever know who is lazy and who is hard-working. Based on what? One play that gets replayed over and over? How dirty a uniform is? The tantrum he throws when he strikes out?

So I won't say there are no lazy players, but I'll say that most of what fans think they know in that regard is based on thin air.

Ya have to believe that there are lazy ballplayers, ones who take days off, ones who loaf after balls, ones who don't always try their hardest....They exist in every profession.

Absolutely. I maintain that EVERY PLAYER is guilty of that at some point(s).

But why do you ALWAYS hear about it happening with some guys and NEVER with others?

Why isn't Varitek ripped for not running hard to first every single game or never trying to break up a double play at second? (Jesus, Buchholz made more of an effort coming into second base when he tweaked his hamstring theother day than I have seen Cactus do in friggin' years!)

But the media never menions it -- no matter how many times it happens -- because it runs counter to their very narrow description of Tek as a human computer behind the plate, superior handler of pitchers, and a gritty, tough captain.

It's amusing (and annoying) that media members are some of the laziest people around when it comes to getting info and doing any analysis -- and they are the ones calling players lazy.

Oh right, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, the allowed exceptions so people can say the media is balanced. You're right. There are two people out of the thousands that ever called Bush on anything. My mistake.

L-girl said...Oh right, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, the allowed exceptions so people can say the media is balanced. You're right. There are two people out of the thousands that ever called Bush on anything. My mistake.

If I were FY, unlikely as that is, in a like situation, doing great and suddenly hit with a dumb injury, I'd be off in a depressed funk, cursing the universe, acting like a frippin baby, whining, snarling, snapping at my wife, refusing to turn on the game, etc.

When I hear about him taking grounders, that's the POV I approach it from--the difference between FY and jag.

So, apart from the pleasant straitjacket the media has sewn for him, apart from the comparisons with dumb things done by other players we may hate, apart from media enabling and bullshit--I just admire him doing that and being that way, though I won't argue with Allan that it's stupid not to listen to your doctor and to act like a ten year old on speed.

Still, his nickname here is FY and kicking away his crutches is in line with all that implies about him.